Bibliography - Y. Ming

Sulfate aerosol from burning fossil fuels not only has
strong cooling effects on the Earth’s climate but also
imposes substantial costs on human health. To assess the
impact of addressing air pollution on climate policy, we
incorporate both the climate and health effects of sulfate
aerosol into an integrated-assessment model of fossil fuel
emission control. Our simulations show that a policy that
adjusts fossil fuel and sulfur emissions to address both
warming and health simultaneously will support more stringent fossil fuel and sulfur controls. The combination of
both climate and health objectives leads to an acceleration
of global warming in the 21st century as a result of the
short-term climate response to the decreased cooling from
the immediate removal of short-lived sulfate aerosol. In the
long term (more than 100 years), reducing sulfate aerosol
emissions requires that we decrease fossil fuel combustion
in general, thereby removing some of the coemitted carbon
emissions and leading to a reduction in global warming.

Sulfate aerosol from burning sulfur-containing fuels comprises the single most significant contribution to the climate effects of aerosol emissions: as a surface-layer pollutant it also imposes health costs on humans. There is growing epidemiological evidence identifying substantial economic costs from health effects associated with air pollutions (Hall et al., 1992). To make a start on assessing the impact on climate policy of addressing air pollution, we incorporate sulfate aerosol, which has a cooling effect (Adams et al., 2001), to an integrated-assessment model of fossil fuel emissions control. The climate and health damages, and carbon-based fossil fuel and sulfur control costs, are discounted from the total economic output available for consumption and investment. By maximizing per capital utility given available policy instruments, the optimal paths of global mean temperature and carbon and sulfur emissions are calculated.